Larz Anderson Auto Museum exhibit: How do you like them, shiny or shabby?

Saturday

Jul 6, 2013 at 12:01 AM

BROOKLINE, Mass. — A show at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum highlights a growing trend in the car collecting hobby: preserving old cars with their patina of age rather than restoring them to pristine condition....

By Peter C.T. Elsworth

BROOKLINE, Mass. — A show at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum highlights a growing trend in the car collecting hobby: preserving old cars with their patina of age rather than restoring them to pristine condition.

The idea is that a car is only original once, and as such, a pure articulation of the manufacturer’s intention. Once a part is restored or replaced, let alone the entire vehicle in a so-called frame-off restoration, the originality is lost and its value as a historical document compromised.

“Patina, Provenance, Originality: Thoughtful Preservation of Collectible Automobiles” focuses on this trend with examples of restored and unrestored vehicles.

As the museum notes, the traditional focus in the car hobby is “to restore (old) cars to how they looked when they were new, how they looked during their glory days.”

However, there is a growing awareness that “the role of the collectible automobile is changing, that it is gaining more value as a historical object, moving more toward an identity as fine art and less as a casual hobby.”

“In part, this is because cars are becoming some of the last tangible connections to the specific periods that produced them, and it is their imperfections and their originality that can play a major part in informing us of those pasts.”

The museum is also showing a number of vintage open-wheel racing cars in various states of preservation and restoration from the collection of local auto historian Joe Freeman, plus spectacular artwork as well as period fashions from Lasell College in Newton, Mass. The show runs through the spring of 2014.

Right off, a dusty 1937 Packard Roadster 129 convertible sitting in a diorama of the barn in Milton, Mass., where it was found, sets the tone.

Surrounded by old boxes and tin oil cans, the car, which belongs to the Mary M.B. Wakefield Charitable Trust, had been parked in typical barn-find fashion for decades before being discovered earlier this year.

Sheldon Steele, executive director of the museum, said the car had been found with “the keys in the ignition and with driving clothes on the front seat.”

It had been sitting in the barn for close to 70 years because the owner “did not know what to do with it,” Steele said. Such barn finds are legend among collectors because they are not only often in good, original condition but rare examples of particular models, and thus valuable.

An exhibit next door demonstrates the difference between preservation and restoration. Two 1953 Corvettes, one restored and the other unrestored, sit side by side. The restored model looks “perfect,” but Steele said the unrestored model was likely more valuable.

“Some people are only dazzled by things that are shiny,” said Steele.

Likewise, two 1957 Porsches can be compared — one restored and the other unrestored. They sit next to a spectacular 1915 Duesenberg Double Drop Frame Rally Car known as “The Benedict Special” that came in second at Indianapolis in 1916.

“It’s not pristine but it tells a wonderful story,” said Steele.

Other cars from Freeman’s collection include a 1914 Mercer Type 35J Raceabout and a 1925 Bugatti Type 30 Compton and Herman four seat touring car.

In the back room, the display is split between a wall of outstanding auto art, including exquisite pencil drawings by the late race car artist Peter Helck. The drawings served as preparations for his famous paintings of early race cars in action.

In addition, a number of vintage racing prints by artist John W. Burgess are displayed. Fliers, one advertising late 1940s midget racing — “Terrific speed on a small track” — invite would-be fans to “see the mighty atoms of the racing world in action.”

And speaking of the mighty atoms, ranged along the opposite side are a number of antique midget race cars from Freeman’s collection, including a 1938 Sparks-Torne Little Six, a 1962 John Feray Special, a 1937 Kooperman Offy 97ci Oval Track Racer, a 1952 Kurtis-Chrysler 500a Indy Car, a 1952 Kurtis 500a Offy Indy Roadster, a pre-1940 Welleroth/Offy 220 big car and a 1934 Riley Four Port Sprint Car.

“To see a collection of such cars east of Indianapolis is a rare treat,” said Steele.